Search Results - chemical/biological sensors

Haptic displays have promising applications in assistive devices for the visually impaired. However, current versions of this technology remain confined to low resolution tactile replications of images, and thus provide limited usefulness. Conventional haptic displays use motors or electrodes to convert images to touch, using an interface that is a...

Background Nanoparticles are currently in use across a vast array of consumer products. They find application in scratch resistant coatings, active ingredients in sunscreens, stain repellant fabrics, nanoparticle-strengthened steels, and also broadly to the production, processing, safety and packaging of food. Nanotechnology is conducted at the nan...

It is estimated that there are two million people in the United States that have lost a limb and another 185,000 each year that will lose a limb. Artificial limbs, or prosthetics, can restore some normal function but are expensive and sometimes not covered by insurance. Touch sensors are often used to alert a user when the prosthetic has come into ...

Current portable and wearable devices use fingerprint analysis for secure authentication. The fingerprint pattern systems analyze only the surface morphology of the fingerprint, making it easy for hackers to spoof and bypass authentication. RF signals can collect tissue information beyond the surface of the finger and can provide increased security...

Devices using biometric authentication such as fingerprint scanning lack liveness checks, resulting in devices that are vulnerable to spoofing and allow access to sensitive personal information. Using electrocardiographic (ECG) signals is an alternative to fingerprint scanning because ECG scanning has intrinsic liveness detection that provides incr...

Electric field sensors are low cost, compact, efficient, and are able to penetrate non-conducting materials, making it a great choice for commercial application. A branch of electric field sensing known as passive electric field sensing commonly uses electric charge induction sensors called D-dot sensors. D-dot sensors analyze the voltage at specif...

Atomic force microscopy is a surface imaging technique which has evolved into a unique molecular tool for a host of nanobiotechnology applications. The ability of AFM to sense proteins and other chemical entities is continually being improved by the advancement of new and superior functionalized tips. Often, biochemical research requires the simult...

Metal organic framework (MOF) crystals have a variety of potential applications, but have physical properties that constrain growth on various substrates. Plastic nanofibers are a potential platform for growing MOF crystals and are promising due to their own high versatility in many fields such as sensing, protective clothing, and separations. Howe...

Traditional x-ray detectors capture images in flat, rectangular 2-D shapes while many of the objects of interest are 3-D. Digital x-ray imaging in 3-D is vital in the medical field as well as in the industrial field. Applications in the mechanical field include inspection such as detecting hairline cracks or leaks in pipes, aircraft, and military e...

Smart metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous, crystalline materials made of metals bonded to organic molecules (ligands) that have changeable properties when introduced to external stimuli. Changing the minimum energy required to excite an electron into a conductive state (optical band gap energy) allows control of the conductivity. Most effort...